Interviews: First Interview

Sport Games have traditionally been a console game staple, how do you think a PC sports game will fair?

Football Superstars:

Rather well from what I've seen! PC versions have always played second fiddle to their console brethren for the big guns in football gaming and you often get the impression they're little more than an afterthought from the way they play. Football Superstars however is a game that's been developed solely with the PC in mind.

The big difference between the formats is control systems. Obviously gamepads have got a monopoly on the home consoles and so we've had umpteen years to get used to blistering our thumbs with D-pad and button controls. The keyboard and mouse system used in Football Superstars is a real sea change and a lot of players who've been brought up on FIFA and PES approach it with apprehension at first. We take no small amount of pleasure in seeing that moment when it all falls into place and they realise exactly why we've taken the approach we have.

Console football games employ a certain amount of creative license when interpreting the player's inputs. When you're through on goal in FIFA you'll give the game an inkling of where you want to put your shot but ultimately it's out of your hands. Ever thought you'd set up a perfectly placed dink into the top corner and seen it blasted 15 feet over the bar?

FS employs a control system that will be familiar to anyone who's played a first or third person shooter. W, A, S, and D control your movement, shift is sprint, spacebar is pass, and left click is shoot (this being the short and sweet explanation, obviously). Using the mouse you can choose precisely where you want the ball to go, giving you an unprecedented level of control over your actions. It will sound unusual and unintuitive until you've actually sat down and had a go, but it's remarkable how quickly players get the hang of it and find themselves performing defence-splitting passes and crunching tackles without a second thought.

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MMORPG.com:

Are you concerned that individuals will consider Football Superstars more of management type game rather than a playable game?

Football Superstars:

Football Superstars spans the entire spectrum between FIFA/PES and Football Manager, with a respectful nod to New Star Soccer somewhere along the way.

The character progression elements of Football Superstars are about as far as you can get from management games as you focus in on just one player rather than an entire squad. Furthermore, on the pitch you only have your own actions to worry about rather than those of a team of 11.

We do however give the most experienced players the opportunity to create Player-Managed Clubs, and at that point the game changes significantly. As the creator of one of these clubs you design the club badge and kit before recruiting your friends to play for you in the league against other PMCs. You can give your players roles such as coach, captain, and even scout! Scouts can use the game's "I Spot" system to search through the performance statistics of any other player and find full match replays to decide if that sturdy centre-half at MMORPG.com United could plug that leaky hole at the back for CyberSports FC.

MMORPG.com:

Can you explain a little more of the game play, will it be like that of more traditional MMOs?

Football Superstars:

There are three key forms of competitive football in Football Superstars.

First you have the Kickabouts. These equate to going to the park with your mates and playing for fun. Even International Football Superstars play jumpers-for-goalposts now and again! Simply approach a Kickabout Organiser NPC to view a server lobby-esque list of available matches to jump into.

Next there are FS Club matches. When you first create your character you can join one of 14 clubs, each with an astonishingly in-depth history written by award-winning author Chris Hunt. At any time or place in the world you can hit F1 to launch the match finder and specify whether you'd like to play a 3, 5, 7, or 11-a-side match and for how long. With this information entered you are then hooked up with like-minded players from your own club and matched with your opposite numbers from a rival side. The results of these matches are all put together using an ELO ranking system and the 14 clubs compete in four-week seasons for the Superstar League title and the fame and riches it bestows upon the players.

The third match type involves the Player-Managed Clubs mentioned earlier. They too compete in leagues, but you can also make a direct challenge to another manager and arrange matches this way. By doing this it would be very easy to organise your own cup competitions and we will actively support the community in setting up these tournaments.

MMORPG.com:

What is the general market you are hoping to appeal to with Football Superstars?

Football Superstars:

Over the last year or so, mingling with the community on a daily basis, we've realised that FS has incredibly broad appeal! Unsurprisingly the demographic that's proven to be hottest under the collar is MMORPG players with a love of football, but they make up just one of the slices of the FS community pie. We've also attracted many thousands of people who are MMORPG players with little interest in football, and football fans who previously had little interest in MMORPGs. Most excitingly to me as a seasoned nerd is that Football Superstars is for some their first step into the world of PC gaming. How cool is that?!

MMORPG.com:

How well do you think the casual gamer fare in Football Superstars?

Football Superstars:

One of the great things about Football Superstars is that it's freely distributable, you can log in from anywhere, and there's no limit to the number of installs you're allowed. Why not download it at work and have a quick match in your lunch break?

As it's free-to-play you needn't feel that you have to rack up a certain amount of hours each month to get your money's worth as with other MMORPGs. You could choose to ignore the whole character progression angle if you wish to and just arrange a weekly Kickabout session with a few friends if that's how you'd like to play.

MMORPG.com:

How will character advancement work in Football Superstars, will there be an allotment of skills, or just a tournament system?

Football Superstars:

There are two main leveling systems to work on in FS; Football and Fame. Your football ability and level increases with each match you play depending on actions performed. If you made a perfectly timed sliding tackle to snatch the ball away from the striker's feet just as he was about to let rip, then you can count on your slide tackling stat improving. As well as this you can spend the money you earn from your club to train at the gym and further improve your ability to get one over the opposition on the pitch.

You can also learn skills which, to draw parallels with traditional MMORPGs, act somewhat like spells to grant passive or temporary buffs. For example you could trigger a hardiness skill in a match to temporarily increase your ability to shrug off a challenge. There's even a variety of unique animated skills to use tricks to your advantage, such as dummies, bicycle kicks, and Cruijff turns.

Football Superstars is as much about your life off the pitch as on it, and the Fame system emulates the way professional footballers embrace or endure celebrity. You gain fame points by hanging out in the trendiest bars and nightclubs and speaking with the journalists you'll find scouring the streets of the two towns of our persistent virtual world.

You can choose to completely ignore the Fame elements if you're solely interested in football, but celebrity does have its benefits and as your Fame level increases you'll be able to dodge the bouncers and gain access to exclusive areas and reap rewards that could help you on the pitch.

MMORPG.com:

Do you think solo players will fair well in the game or is becoming part of a club mandatory?

Football Superstars:

Football Superstars is definitely a game you can play without worrying about looking for groups or guilds. The match finder automatically matches you with other players looking for the same type of match as you, so you don't have to panic about whether your friends are all able to get online at the same time.

With that said I think it's the case with all MMORPGs that they're more fun with friends, but when you're meeting new people every time you play a match you'll have no trouble finding some!

MMORPG.com:

What level of detail can players expect of their characters?

Football Superstars:

There's plenty of potential for truly making your character your own by visiting the large number of shops in the world and picking up the clothes that suit you and your Superstar lifestyle. We even have licensed clothing and boots from Puma which you can pick up in a replica of Puma's flagship Carnaby Street store.

MMORPG.com:

Can you give us some hints of what's to come on player created clubs?

Football Superstars:

As mentioned earlier the first thing you do is name your club and design its badge and kit. We've already established an extremely active community and the most eager members have been planning for their PMCs for several months already! To thank them for their efforts, our artists ensured that when they were putting together the components for badge and kit creation it would be possible for everything our community has imagined to be creatable in the game.

MMORPG.com:

Will there be any level of NPC game play (i.e. training) or will all game play be against other players?

Football Superstars:

There is an interactive football tutorial to help new players to get to grips with the controls and this involves some basic AI, however at launch there will not be a "Vs CPU" mode. That isn't to say that we will never add this and it's something we've already talked about quite a lot.